Polarized audience shows up to hear developers defend big-scale plans

The developers behind a proposed 17-storey highrise on Broadway Avenue defended their vision to a starkly divided audience Wednesday night in Saskatoon.

While many residents praised the building's design and welcomed an influx of 117 new condo owners, an equal number of people seated inside the Nutana Collegiate gym voiced fears about the tower's scale and its potential to ruin the character of the Broadway area.

"The downtown character is quite different from the Broadway character," said Dray. "Whereas there are quite a few tall buildings downtown already, the Broadway area has had a limited height restriction and we believe that should continue."

'We are not Toronto'

Another skeptic, Linda Epstein, put it more bluntly.

"We are not Toronto, we are not Montreal, we are not Halifax," she said.

"I don't want other another enveloping, foreboding entryway off the Broadway Bridge," she added, referring to the midsized mixed-use building that would face the development from the other side of the avenue.

The narrower side of the building will face Broadway Avenue. (Urban Capitl/Victory Majors)

The new tower, including three levels of underground parking, would replace a parking lot next door the Broadway Roastery.

"It beats the heck out of a dusty parking lot," said Andy Hanna after taking in some of the display boards arrayed in the gym.

But Hanna then immediately touched on a concern repeated by many Wednesday night: the increased traffic the highrise might bring to the neighborhood.

A city spokesperson said that the project would create 50 to 75 new car trips during the busiest part of the day. That's compared to the 20 to 25 trips taken during the same time of day by people using the current parking lot.

Others wondered if the building's 122 underground parking spots will be adequate. One woman asked whether the six-metre-wide lane behind the proposed tower would be big enough to accommodate two-way traffic going in and out of the garage.

"Slowly," said Brent McAdam, a city planner.

'Let's not fear the change'

Still, the night often turned back to the central question of what the tower would or wouldn't do to the character of Broadway.

Jay Brown, a self-described twenty-something consultant who sometimes commutes by bike to Broadway from the city's northeast suburban fringe, held the audience's attention, sans mic, for about two minutes as he spoke passionately against those fears.

"Let's not let 17 stories or 15 stories or glass or wood, whatever it is, get in the way," he said. "What makes a community is the people. It's not the buildings. The more people that come into your community, the more electric it's going to be."